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Causes of and ages at Death.—In table III of the Local Government Board
series, which will be found at page 106, a certain amount of information is given with
regard to the deaths which occurred during the year amongst residents in the Borough.
The numbers dying from certain specified causes are shown, as well as the numbers
dying from these causes between certain ages.
In a separate column the total number of deaths which occurred in institutions in
the Borough are entered. These are classified only according to cause. That the
number was so high as 933, a figure which includes non-residents as well as residents,
is due to the fact that, when nursing homes are included, the number of institutions is
very considerable.
Much of the information contained in the table, interesting as it is, calls for much
fuller consideration than is given to it there.
Closer enquiry into the causes which contributed to the total number of deaths is
required. The figures relating to age at death also should be more fully analysed,
and in the hope that some fact which may be of use may emerge this is carried out
in the following pages.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
The Infantile Mortality rate of any district is the number of deaths of infants
under one year of age per 1,000 of the births which occurred in the same year. The
number of babies under one who died in St. Marylebone in 1912 was 209 and the
number of births in that year 2,246. The infantile mortality rate is therefore 93, and
the lowest ever recorded. The only year in which a figure at all approaching this was
recorded was 1910; that year the rate was 98'9. Never before had a rate below 100
been recorded, the next lowest to it being 102'2 which was noted in 1907. In their
climatic conditions, and as is generally recognized now, these play a considerable
part in relation to infantile mortality, these two years closely resembled 1912.